Tag Archives: Diva Pedroia

Earlier last week I wrote that Dustin Pedroia is nothing more than a diva. He talks a big game but doesn’t offer much in terms of leadership. Writers like me took issue with Pedroia for several reasons. The Red Sox are leaderless right now without David Ortiz. Pedroia isn’t the player he was in 2007. The Red Sox may or may not reach the World Series. All these factors led to writers like me to find someone to blame. Since we can only blame John Farrell so much, we started focusing on Pedroia. As Dustin Pedroia faces scrutiny, the media, me included, should take a step back and think more about what his real role is and the positive attributes he brings to the team.

Dustin Pedroia Faces Scrutiny For Drama He Didn’t Start

It’s easy to forget how much pressure Pedroia is under right now. He’s the senior player on the team. He plays his heart out. Injuries plague him more often than not. Then there was the petty drama that he didn’t start. Pedroia shook off the idea that Manny Machado deliberately slid into him during an April series in Baltimore. But then both teams decided to escalate the issue by beaning each other’s batters in separate games. Whether Pedroia intended to distance himself from Matt Barnes is unclear, but it certainly wasn’t an issue Pedroia escalated on purpose.

Pedroia Didn’t Ask To Get Caught Up In The Price/Eckersley Drama Either

Details about what happened between David Price and Dennis Eckersley continue to be vague and conflicting. We know Price took issue with Eckersley’s opinions. For a while though it seemed like Pedroia egged Price on as he insulted Eckersley on the team airplane. Given his lack of pursuit of drama, Pedroia unlikely exacerbated the incident. In fact, given his role on the team past and present, I’m more likely to believe the reports that Pedroia intervened in a positive way. Pedroia allegedly tried to mediate a more peaceful approach to resolving the issue. Although reports state that neither party wants to meet anymore, it’s more likely that Pedroia tried to act more like a teammate than an instigator.

With this said, writers like me need to take a step back and think twice about the rumors and out-of-context reports were often hear. Sensationalist headlines are interesting and fun to write about, but they run contradictory to our mission to support the Red Sox. This is especially true when we don’t have all the facts.